In Pace Christi

Anastasio was born in Troia, in the province of Foggia (Italy), on 23rd June 1936, into a very religious family. His father Michelangelo and mother Tecla were blessed with 9 children: 5 boys and 4 girls.
In September 1946, he entered the “Minor Seminary” that the Combonians run in Troy, to attend sixth grade. Three years later, he joined the Apostolic School of Sulmona and on 20th August 1951, he wrote the official letter to Father General, «to ask for the greatly desired grace of being admitted to the Novitiate of the Sons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus». On 1st November, he went to Florence to begin the Novitiate and, on 6th September 1953, he took his first vows. On 9th September 1959, he made his perpetual profession and on 10th April 1960, he was ordained a priest in the cathedral of his city, Troia, by Bishop Antonio Pirotto.
Like any other newly ordained Comboni Missionary, Father Anastasio longed to go to Africa and asked as much. However, a month after his ordination he was sent to the Apostolic School of Sulmona, as a French teacher for 90 “Little Apostles”. He champed at the bit for two years and, on 7th July 1962, he received a new letter of assignment, not yet to Africa, but the editorial staff of the magazine Nigrizia, at the General Curia of Verona. There he discovered his talents as a skilled and convincing writer but remained there just for one year.
That was in the early sixties of the last century. The expulsion of the Comboni missionaries from southern Sudan and the frequent contacts of the General Management with the African Bishops present at the Second Vatican Council contributed to accelerating the opening of the Institute towards new mission territories in Africa. In June 1963, Father Anastasio was appointed to Burundi: he was part of a group of eight Comboni Missionaries who would have to start the Comboni presence in that African nation.
On 8th December, the eight “Burundians” took off from Rome. When they arrive in Bujumbura, they were greeted triumphantly by the White Fathers, who had already been present in Burundi for years. The new arrivals were assigned to four parishes, managed by long-standing missionaries or by the local clergy.
Father Anastasio spent the first five months in Bukeye to learn Kirundi, a very difficult local language. Then he was assigned to the Mabayi mission, one of the most remote in the far north-west of the country; two years later he was asked to go and found the Butara mission, which he inaugurated on 2nd September 1966. In June 1967, he was transferred to Cibitoke as superior and parish priest.
In April 1972, the demons of hatred and violence were unleashed in Burundi. A selective genocide took place in the country: the “strong” Tutsi (although a minority: 14% of the population) massacred 200,000, perhaps 300,000 Hutu (84% of the population). Father Anastasio cried out, begging them to stop; he recalls: “I could not let innocent people be massacred without protesting.”
Since the bishops do not intervene, the representatives of some missionary institutes prepared an “informative note”, which was delivered to the bishops, specifying that it is a “reserved and confidential document”. The text ends up in the hands of the Mayre state and the local governor. The authorities are convinced that the Comboni Missionaries are behind the document; the bishop considers Father Anastasio the mastermind of everything. The Comboni Missionaries are forbidden to leave the territories of their respective missions. A couple of times, Father Anastasio was interrogated by the police and sentenced to house arrest for a few days but he never stopped helping Hutu people to save themselves. On 12th September, for the umpteenth time, he was summoned by the authorities who imposed forced domicile on him for the third time: he remained locked up at home for 42 days. The authorities hoped that he would give in and spontaneously ask to leave the country but he did not budge. On 25th October, he was notified of the expulsion decree, and on the 28th he took a flight to Rome.
On 3rd March 1973, he was already in the community of Bari as superior. He was a virtual boiling pot of ideas: missionary and vocational animation initiatives, meetings with young people, visits to parish groups…
In January 1977, he was assigned to the Community of San Pancrazio, in Rome, engaged in ministry in Roman parishes and in various services rendered to the Comboni Association of Emigrants and Refugees Service (ACSE).
The four-year period 1977-1980 was a period of intense activity for Father Anastasio: he was a member of the General Secretariat for missionary animation; member of the General Committee for the Centenary of Comboni; councillor of the Secretariat for the missions of the Italian province; a member of the Missionary Office of the Diocese of Rome; from May 1977 to September 1980, he participated in the meetings of the National Missionary Council of the CEI as a representative of the national Caritas.
What excited him most of all, however, was being called by the General Curia, in July 1980, to work with Father Pietro Chiocchetta and Father Aldo Gilli in the demanding cause of beatification of Daniele Comboni.
Then appointed to Malawi-Zambia, at the end of October 1981 he went to London to learn English. In July 1982 he was in Zambia, where he immediately threw himself into learning the local language, Chichewa.
In March 1983, he was already parish priest in Phalombe, in the Diocese of Blantyre (Malawi), where he remained until 1992. From 1987 to 1989, he was vice provincial of Malawi-Zambia. In 1993 he moved to the mission of Chipini, in the Diocese of Zomba (Malawi). In February 1997 he became parish priest of Chipata (Zambia) and superior of the community. He stayed there until April 2011, when he moves for a year to Lisungwi, in the Diocese of Blantyre. In July 2012 he was assigned to nearby Lirangwe until April 2013, when he returned to Lisungwi, until 1916, also becoming the community bursar.
In 35 long years, Father Anastasio became a real star performer of the Comboni mission in the province; he also launched the “Mary’s Meals” project, a concrete initiative in favour of primary school children: to provide each of them with a meal a day.
On 1st February 2016, Father Anastasio was assigned to Italy, in charge of missionary animation in the parish of Troia. He was a “personality” in the diocese, where everyone knew him as a great missionary, supported in so many ways in his work in Africa.
He was always happy to speak with enthusiasm about the Africa he once knew. However, when it came to new views of mission, new paradigms of evangelisation, of ministeriality, or new priorities adopted by the Institute, he appeared rather inflexible, traditional and suspicious of any openness... Living with him in community was not always easy.
In 2017, his health began to fail. On 1st April 2022, he was forced to retire to a “care home” in Troy, run by the Friends of Lourdes Union (UAL) for non-autonomous people. In mid-May, following a deterioration, he had to be hospitalised at the Ospedali Riuniti of Foggia, where he passed away on the evening of 28th May. His funeral was celebrated on 30 May at the Parish of Maria Santissima Mediatrice, in Troia, the seat of the Institute. (Father Franco Moretti, mccj)